#read scripture

[bringthekingdom]

[take-me-south]

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith

2 Timothy 4:7

[icannotbejondenden47]

‘I Don’t Have Time to Read Scripture’: Bad Reasons We Neglect the Bible

The hurried soul prizes efficiency and productivity, even when it comes to Bible reading. But if we want to hear God’s voice in Scripture, w

“You’re going too fast. You’re making careless mistakes.”

I can still hear my dad saying this as he was helping me with my math in the basement. A worksheet or quiz lay in front of us, and its message was clear: I know how to do the problems; I’m just not doing them carefully. “Ugh,” I groan, “this takes forever! When can I be done?”

[bldgrelationshipwgod]

New Testament Overview | The Bible Project

The Bible is made of 2 large collections: OT & NT Testament refers to a covenant partnership, which is what both of these two collections are all about.

It tells one epic & complicated story about God’s covenant partnership with Israel & all humanity.

OT is a unified collection of 39 Israelite texts that are over 1000 years in the making. In contrast the 27 books of the NT all came into existence within 40yrs. The NT texts were all written by first generation followers of Jesus.

From an early period, Christian communities began collecting these texts. And reading them along side the OT, as one unified story that leads to Jesus.

NT begins with 4 books (Matthew/Mark/Luke/John), together are called the Gospel. They tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth’s life/death/resurrection, as an announcement of good news.

It’s followed by 5th narrative work called the Acts of the Apostles. Here the risen Jesus commissions the Apostles (“sent ones”), they’re appointed as Jesus’ representatives to spread the good news about Him throughout the ancient world.

After Acts comes a collection of Letters from the Apostles. These were written to provide teachings & guidance for local communities of Jesus’s followers called churches. There are 13 churches from Paul, & they’re not arranged in the order of when they were written; rather from longest (Romans) to the shortest (Philemon). Then there’s the letters to the Hebrews; written by close but un-named associate of the Apostles.

After this, are the letters of James & Jude (2 brothers of Jesus); & Peter and John (2 among His first followers).

The last NT book is Revelations. A letter to 7 churches that reveals a prophetic word of challenging comfort to all of Jesus’ followers.

So those are the books of the NT, but what are they about? And how do they connect with the OT, to make up one unified story?

Think of it this way, the Bible is one long epic narrative with multiple movements or acts. The OT recounts the first series of acts, giving you everything you need to make sense of the story to follow: (1) Core themes, (2) Plot conflict, are arranged in (3) Design patterns.

Then in the NT, these are all picked up & carried forward to the story’s culmination in Jesus.

Let me show you what I mean:

God provides a sweet garden temple for humans who are made to be God’s partners in ruling the world. But the humans are foolish & they give into a dark temptation & rebel against God’s wisdom.

Violence & Oppression: So they are exiled into a wilderness, where they start killing each other; they build cities that bred their selfishness & oppression, leading up to the big bad city of Babylon.

God’s Promise: But God loves the world & its foolish humans, so He sets in motion a rescue plan. By promising the arrival of a new human, who will destroy evil that has lured us into self-destruction.

It develops the themes & patterns of the 1st act.

God calls a new humanity out of Babylon, into a sweet garden land. Abraham/Sarah, & his descendants the Israelites. God promises that through them, Divine blessings will be restored to all of the nations. Truly these are the new humans that we're all waiting for!

But the Israelites repeat humanities rebellion against GOD (idolatry), building their own violent cities, that lead to self-destruction & another exile in Babylon.

But GOD sustains His Promise, that the new human will come from Abraham’s lineage. It'll be a priest King, who will now have to rescue both Israel & humanity from Babylon to restore God’s blessing to the world

[jeeey]

The Bible Project - Read Scripture: Romans Ch. 1-4

Watch our Read Scripture video on the book of Romans, which breaks down the literary design of the book and its flow of thought. Paul shows how Jesus created the new covenant family of Abraham through his death and resurrection and the sending of the Spirit.

#Faith #Hope #Love #JESUSlovesYOU #SoMuch #GODisWithYOU #YouAreNotAlone #JESUSisLORD #OurSavior #OurHEALER #TrustHIM #FollowHIM #HEwillNEVERleadYouWrong #KeepPraying #KeepHoping #MiraclesDOhappen #Animation #Cartoon #AnimatedSeries #Christian #GOD #JESUSCHRIST #SonofGOD #OldTestament #NewTestament

[nnennem]

Read Scripture by Crazy Love Ministries

[the-average-procrastinator]

HEY-O!

If you’re looking for a good bible app, I just started using Read Scripture and I am loving it! They have the text to read, a video explaining it (with little animations), and then a Psalm to meditate on. So it’s great for a daily devotional. 

I really like the structure and easy interface!